From the Memory Box 27

“Meet me for breakfast.” So, my regional director greeted me late in the first day of our annual conference some decades ago. I was initially quite chuffed. That was until some senior colleagues in whom I confided regarding the invitation, suggested I temper my joy a little.? I wondered why.

As we finished our breakfast the following morning, my Regional Director focused our chat on a campaign which our school initiated and had received national media coverage.

A major international Telco had begun the process that would lead to the construction of a huge mobile phone tower on vacant land adjacent to our school grounds. The tower was to be located approximately 100 metres from the school. That outcome we did not, under any circumstances, wish to occur. Our campaign ultimately proved to be successful and, in the process, informed the development of the City of Casey Mobile Phone Towers policy.

Now, however, my Regional Director was more interested in other matters. It did not take me long to find that out. “Are you leading your community in this campaign, or are you supporting your community in it?”

Leading or supporting? Now I knew why I was having breakfast with my Regional Director. I explained that I was not sure that I could provide a clear-cut answer to the question. Nonetheless, I was invited to try. Ultimately, I settled for the ‘teamwork’ strategy – after all, our staff and parents were in unison on our opposition to a huge mobile phone tower being built next door to our school. The major concern for us all was the possible dangers posed to the health of young children being exposed to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the mobile phone tower.

Breakfast finished with my Regional Director advising me to be careful in how I choose to interpret my leadership role as a school principal of a government school. I have never forgotten that breakfast chat. Reassuringly, I am far from alone in my quest to grow my knowledge and understanding of leadership. It is a truly fascinating area of study – a simple Google check will reveal an absolute torrent of literature on the topic of leadership; this including school leadership. Why so?

The reason being, that leadership is a devilishly complex phenomenon to define precisely, as is evidenced by the evolving nature of leadership theory since the 1840s. What began with Trait Theory then has developed to what is now called New Leadership theory as our increasingly fast-paced and technologically changing world continually reshapes our approach to leadership.

Interestingly, Instructional Leadership, which first surfaced following research on effective schools in the United States in the 1980s, has become ubiquitous throughout much of the world. This, despite sceptics wondering at the time, if it would be another educational fad. At its core, school principals lead the teaching and learning in their schools. What does this mean in practice?

For some it means that principals spend considerable time in the classroom, observing their teachers teach and providing them with valuable feedback. This approach could also include demonstrations of model lessons by the school principal. In effect, the principal as role model, it can be argued, is a powerful approach. After all, principals were once classroom or specialist teachers. It is a reasonable assumption to make that were they not excellent teachers, then they would not have been promoted to the position of principal.

For others, such an approach, can be viewed as micromanaging – a particularly unhelpful strategy in times when principals have so much more on their work plates. These come in the form of substantial accountability and compliancy requirements, community engagement expectations, student and staff wellbeing responsibilities, not to mention finding creative ways to manage ongoing staff shortages daily for many. From this perspective what could Instructional Leadership look like?

A distributed leadership model beckons – that is, middle level school leaders, Learning Specialists and experienced teachers, assume the role of observing teachers teach and providing model lessons. Principal Class members engage as Instructional Leaders via their various leadership teams.

Choice – a key ingredient of leadership, affords us with an opportunity to define our approach to our role. In times when we are finding it increasingly difficult to fill principal vacancies, largely due to a continuing variety of workload and other pressures, what choices can we make in the best interests of our students and staff? By the way – don’t forget yourself.